The use of adhesives for securing disposable absorbent articles for personal hygiene is well known in the art. In particular, the use of hot melt and emulsion-based adhesives is general technical standard. The application of emulsion-based adhesives onto the backsheets of absorbent articles for garment fastening is for instance known from SE-A-374,489. The use of hot melt adhesives for this purpose is for instance described in EP-A-140,135 or in WO 00/61054.
It is very common to apply fabric softeners after washing the undergarments for improving fabric softness. Fabric softeners act on the garment fabric by modifying the surface properties of the fabric fibres. One of the effects of softeners is to make the fibre surfaces more hydrophobic, e.g. by depositing a thin layer of fat-like molecules.
These surface treatments have been found to be detrimental for the fastening performance of conventional adhesives used for fastening absorbent articles to undergarments, such as panties. These adhesives are called panty-fastening adhesives or PFAs hereinafter. Laboratory experiments and consumer feedback have proven that softener treatments significantly reduce the peel strength of conventional PFAs.
Therefore it would be beneficial to provide PFAs having similar fastening performance on both untreated and softener-treated panties.
Further it would be beneficial if such adhesives had similar peel strength during the wearing time from application onto panties to removal, so as to insure an improved adhesion level throughout its use.